UNCENSORED ACCESS: A Good Day to Die Hard

OK, well you're really not done with the Die Hard series -- you haven't watched the _first_ one! Bear with me a minute: Die Hard was based on the book "Nothing Lasts Forever" (1979). That book was a _sequel_ to "The Detective" (1966). The Detective was made into a movie of the same name in 1968, and stars Frank Sinatra. You might think of it as a prequel, since he's still on the NYPD force and his marriage is not the best. When they decided to make the Die Hard (1988) movie, they used the second book (because the first already was a movie). They even approached Frank Sinatra to reprise the lead character. Sinatra declined, and they eventually settled on Bruce Willis. At that point, they reworked the story to make it a stand-alone movie (LOL), changing the name of the character from Joe Leland to John McClane. If you rewatch Die Hard, knowing there's a back-story there, you can see parts of the first movie peek through. So, if you really want to see *all* the Die Hard movies, you should watch 1968's "The Detective". To be honest there are no explosions. Just a *very* gritty story about a murder. If you think about the USA in 1968, and what was considered "acceptable" in movies and TV, you'll see that this movie pushed a lot of boundaries. And it might get you started on a Frank Sinatra series. He did all sorts of movies (you've seen him as Danny Ocean already): Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964 comedy), From Here to Eternity (1953 - Won the Oscar), The Man with the Golden Arm (1955 Drama about addiction), and so many more. He's actually better known as a singer, though (11 Grammys!). You still hear his recordings almost everywhere you go. And if the Die Hard/Christmas thing comes up, just know that every year, on December 12th (Frank's birthday), NYC lights up the Empire State building in blue. (Frank's nickname was "Old Blue-Eyes".) So I'm hoping you will watch The Detective sometime soon. Please? Who's with me?

Unfortunately, Bruce Willis actually worked for a long time after he first exhibited signs of being ill. I remember there was a strange incident where he had a bizarre interaction with an interview while promoting Red 2, which came out in 2013. Quite a few of the movies he made near the end of his career were a type of low-budget direct-to-video action movies where he was only required to be on set for about two days, and they fed him his lines through an earpiece. There were reports that he did many of those movies just to try and build up some more money for his family after he had no choice but to stop working. Frankly, while I think there's some classic Bruce in this, I think the writing was already on the wall with some of the one-liners and stuff, like they just had a soundboard that said certain things like "Jesus!" and "I'm on vacation!" that they dropped in to make him sound more quippy. Also, almost every Die Hard has had a different director. The best of the Die Hard directors was John McTiernan, who directed the original Die Hard, and then returned for the third, Die Hard With a Vengeance. Renny Harlin, the director of The Long Kiss Goodnight, directed the second movie, and a filmmaker called Len Wiseman directed the fourth movie. This final movie was directed by a notable hack named John Moore (the mediocre results are no surprise).

Love your reactions :) There are a few Bruce Willis movies that i think you would enjoy: "Red", "Lucky Number Slevin", "The Whole Nine Yards" and "Sin City" to name just a few...

Watch Chernobyl 2019 TV mini series. So good.